Best Undimmed Poems

“O beautiful for spacious skies”
yet marred by all it’s leaders lies.
See it’s “amber waves of grain”
beneath them hidden is a stain

I pause  “For purple mountain majesties”
yet that’s not all that my heart sees
There “above the fruited plain”
Souls cry out for justice in their pain.

“America,...

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The vision calls me once again against this restless night
in brilliant strata gems, in timeless dreams of light.
I close my ancient eyes, and there, so long ago 
I see the walls that rose above the eventide. 

For it was there where we scaled the lofty...

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Black and White – 3-18-24
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Black and White

Black and white come in focus -
Absent of prime –
A slice of life exposed through the lens,
A flash-dance of story, a masquerade ball.

No sunrise of sepia - clouds absent of platinum,
Lavender drained from lilacs, sky robbed of blue,
Red-orange stolen...

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Thou art to me the fairest crimson rose,
A tender bloom with dawn's first colour gilt;
Yet ev'ry flow'r in mortal clime that grows,
Is here for but a time, and then does wilt.
By all I e'er held dear, I now aver,
That though a rose may wilt, yet...

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Denial is a can of peas
whose contents
should never be indulged
beyond the expiration date.
Yet there I stood, 
evidence screaming reality
at my eyes, their gaze steadfast
upon the wailing baby girl 
before me in her bassinet.
My mind then confidently knew
that what lay there
could have never come
from briefest self-indulgence.
Still,...

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It's been eons since
Life took us in diametrically different directions
Yet melancholic memories of you
Still bloom in my mind like a flower, filling me with glee

Our fleeting union, I'll forever treasure.  It's strange 
Grieving the loss of what might've been. Notwithstanding  
The brevity of...

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Wild grasses of my springtime heart unmown,
unruly, unrestrained, in silence grew.
Youth’s fierce infatuation madly blew
its untamed gales where tall, green blades had grown.
Fair birds of transient love have long since flown –
that tale’s dark thread unraveled. Segue to
the stunning, breathless moment I met you
and found...

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Queen in our eyes! 
Goddess in our hearts 
Alleviated fears ;Shaped behaviors 
Built careers ; Educated a nation 
Sang hymnals :Through the moments slowly.

She learned to live and love 
Unperturbed by failure unruffled by haste 
To rise in the midnight glory 
Unbounded by time ,Undimmed...

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Though brief, it was a time I’ll always treasure.
Its essence shines, undimmed by fleeting years.
That June was filled with pleasure beyond measure.
First bloom of love was sweetest of premieres.

At summer camp, a boy so cute and funny
became my friend--then boyfriend, very soon.
His brilliant smile made...

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See
by Michael R. Burch

See how her hair has thinned: it doesn’t seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are gentler now; see how each wrinkle laughs,
and deepens on itself,...

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I tell myself I do it for the birds.

They gather together
around flameless fires
feeding on warmth’s memory,
chattering amid the blowing leaves,
feathers puffed against the cold.

Their beauty undimmed by the
stark dark and light of barrenness
their songs no less beautiful
in the echoless emptiness,
their presence – undiminished.

Quietly, I leave...

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Family Poems

Mother's Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother's smile, no softer touch
than mother's touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than "much."

So more than "much, " much more than "all."
Though tender words, these do not speak
of love at all,...

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for her sister's one hundredth birthday
      a new sweater purchase from a store blocks away
      a goal coveted, though for the aged, no such thing
          ...

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you ...
were joy
gentle, sweet -
everything beautiful and mild
you devoured my
failings and frailties with soft silence
transformed them to
a tender, trembling music that
warmed my marrow ...
never a complaint or condition
naught but a gaze that
held love, untainted and undimmed,
acceptance, pure, and adoration
so assuredly undeserved ...
to be the silvery
stars...

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Poems about Mothers


Mother's Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother's smile, no softer touch
than mother's touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than "much."

So more than "much, " much more than "all."
Though tender words, these do not speak
of love at...

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